Category Archives: Worlds Shortest Radio Show

It’s half term and London is crawling with children. During school holidays, you expect to see parents with kids around Oxford Street, Covent Garden and the museums in South Kensington. The difference now is there are far more of them in corners of London that were once off-limits. Since London has become such a cleaned-up […]

My friend Brian – whose wife is Swedish – first introduced me to Fat Tuesday, the Swedish equivalent of Shrove Tuesday. Instead of thin, unappealing pancakes our Scandinavian friends prefer big sugar-topped, wickedly creamy cakes known as semlor buns. Perfect for indulging yourself before the forty self-denying days of lent. If the scrumptious display at […]

The Ambassador’s Party, that is, with the death yesterday of Michele Ferrero. His inspired combination of chocolate and hazelnuts led first to Nutella and then to Ferrero Rocher chocolates. But he and his company will always be remembered for The Ambassador’s Party, that famously dreadful and much-lampooned TV commercial. We laughed derisively at it but […]

….would be an unlimited supply of Gillette razors and Kiehl’s shaving cream. Because whenever a man is stranded on a desert island, whether it’s Robinson Crusoe or Tom Hanks in Cast Away, he’s invariably depicted with a big, bushy beard. As long as I had my razors and shaving cream, I’d never feel like a […]

That was the title of the album from which this song was taken. Which makes it – if you ignore the thought of motorbikes haring round a track – perfect for Valentine’s Day. I love this record. Unashamedly schmaltzy and romantic, it’s lifted into a different league by Henry McCulloch’s glorious one-take guitar solo. It […]

A British radio institution for the last sixty years though not one I normally listen to. Tonight however, I’ll make an exception since it’s hosted by and starring my old friend Bobby Davro, performing with the BBC Concert Orchestra. I’ve no wish to sound all “Brucie & Tarby” but Bobby Davro is possibly the greatest […]

The Sutherland Brothers & Quiver. It was the result of a merger between two unknown folk bands – The Sutherland Brothers and Quiver. And that’s what amuses me. No one had heard of them anyway. They weren’t like The Supremes & The Temptations or Queen & David Bowie who were globally famous before they joined […]

…is by how many TV impressionists’ subjects you recognise. When I was a child, Who Do You Do? was a hugely popular impressionist sketch show. The likes of Freddie Starr and Janet Brown did impressions of old movie stars like Jimmy Durante and Mae West but I remember having to ask my dad who they […]

And who would begrudge the veteran auteur this rare and prestigious honour? He deserves enormous credit for the organic and original way his films are made. No script, no story, months of workshopping, rehearsal and improvisation. He has never been beholden to big institutions with only commercial and financial interests. Just one problem: most of […]

Fascinating documentary about Genesis on BBC Four. The band was formed by public schoolboys Peter Gabriel, Mike Rutherford and Tony Banks while they were all at Charterhouse. But it was only when drummer Phil Collins joined in 1970 that they had any degree of success. When Gabriel left and Collins took over as frontman, Genesis […]